


we go together {or not at all}

by moegan



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bendemption, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, TROS fix it fic, and also ben having to deal with the consequences of his actions, because i refuse to let that be canon, in which ben and rey don't die, this made me consider rewriting the entire sequel trilogy how i see fit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22097104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moegan/pseuds/moegan
Summary: The way the Force grips her chest like some sort of slithering monster makes her soul ache.Rey wonders if this is the last time she’ll see Ben Solo.Palpatine holds onto them tightly, draining them both of whatever he can - bond, Force, energy, life - and the yellows of his eyes make her toes curl. His cackle reverberates throughout the walls of the cavern, sinister and bone-chilling.“Ben,” she manages, turning her head to face him. She swallows and notes the tears in his eyes, “I-I’m so-”Her throat is enclosed in a ghost-like grip, her veins protruding from her forehead and neck. The corner of his eyes wrinkle with emotion, his lip quivering in the same way it did when they touched hands for the first time on Ahch-To.AKA the TROS fix it fic that nobody asked me for but i doled out anyway :)
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 13
Kudos: 102





	we go together {or not at all}

The way the Force grips her chest like some sort of slithering monster makes her soul ache.

Rey wonders if this is the last time she’ll see Ben Solo.

Palpatine holds onto them tightly, draining them both of whatever he can - bond, Force, energy, life - and the yellows of his eyes make her toes curl. His cackle reverberates throughout the walls of the cavern, sinister and bone-chilling.

“Ben,” she manages, turning her head to face him. She swallows and notes the tears in his eyes, “I-I’m so-”

Her throat is enclosed in a ghost-like grip, her veins protruding from her forehead and neck. The corner of his eyes wrinkle with emotion, his lip quivering in the same way it did when they touched hands for the first time on Ahch-To.

“Keep your mouth shut, granddaughter,” Palpatine’s gravelly voice snarls.

Rey fights through the bondage his Force has on her own enough to screech, “I am no family of yours!”

She can feel Ben’s fingers desperate to touch her own, to try and reach out to comfort her in some small way. The invisible grasp on his body, contorting it to stand too much upright, keeps his limbs from straying.

“I will drain you of whatever thrums through you both,” Palpatine growls, a smirk growing on his blackened, dead lips. “The Senate needs but one Sith Lord to rule it, and I am more than capable.”

“You’re a dead man,” Ben grumbles, reminiscent of his father’s deep voice in times of trouble.

Palpatine turns to the heir of his arch nemesis, the family who did him in, and pulls him closer, close enough that Ben’s nostrils are filled with the stench of death that lingers on the darksider’s cloak. His cold, once-lifeless fingers traipse over Ben’s face and it is too close to the way his father held him for the boy to allow it. Ben pulls from the darkside, reminding himself of the power Kylo Ren had to restrain, and musters enough influence over the Force to cause Palpatine to cower back, fingers shaken from the touch.

“Your family’s power flows through you - Vader, Luke, Leia, even Han,” Palpatine is almost cooing now, beckoning Ben Solo to turn into Kylo Ren at the seductive tone. “You could have been much stronger, much more influential if you would’ve allowed my words to coerce you into a full conversion, my boy. Kylo Ren could have conquered galaxies with the Emperor in his corner.”

“The darkside is strong,” Ben agrees, the effort of vocalizing enough to break a sweat on his forehead. “But it only brought me pain.”

“Pain is a weapon!” Palpatine shouts, throwing his arms in the air to force lightening from his fingertips. He laughs and it forces ice down Rey’s bone marrow. She leaks tears from either corner of her eyes, hearing the ships turn to craters outside the throne room.

Palpatine turns to the dyad, eyes alight with power, and thrusts his lightening to them. Ben’s clothes smoke and Rey’s hair catches fire as they absorb the attack.

_Ben._

The boy’s eyes turn, looking for the sound of the gentle voice.

_Mother?_

He can hear the echo of her laughter and then she is joined by another, one that still makes his heart quiver.

_Son._

Ben Solo has not cried in many years, and yet he finds himself reduced to tears as the voices of those he has lost echoes in his mind and the agony of Palpatine’s lightning strikes his heart, burying the hot energy in his soul so it may catch aflame and burn him from the inside out.

 _I don’t know what to do,_ he begs, his fists curling at his sides so his fingernails bite into his flesh. The pain is a reminder, and Palpatine is right - pain is power.

For a moment, he has clarity, and another voice speaks to him. 

_Ben, you can bring balance to the Force, as I once did. All you need is a little help._

The Force buckles for a moment and Palpatine falters.

Channeling his prior persona, Ben stomps his foot on the ground and calls to the saber that once belonged to his grandfather, the dead man’s voice ringing in his ears now. 

_Rise, Ben,_ Anakin’s voice is no longer distorted, like it has been Ben’s whole life, and instead it is clear and true. Solid, as Ben always imagined it might be. _Rise and bring balance. Finish what I started._

All of a sudden, like a breath of fresh air pushing its way down his throat, Ben feels the presence of the Force surround him. He can breathe again, Palpatine’s claws ripped from his soul to leave a gaping wound bandaged by the Force Ghosts of the past speaking their wisdom.

The voice that rings the loudest is that of his mother - _Ben, my son,_ she sounds as regal as ever, and a tear drips down Ben Solo’s healed cheek. He leans into the pressure of her hand against his jaw, _Listen to the Force, Ben. I’m sorry we weren’t there for you when we needed to be. Hopefully we can make it up to you now._

Ben looks at Rey, her skin paling and her eyes rolling back in her head, and he taps into the darkside, anger fueling his power. He grits his teeth and turns to see the outline of his mother’s form in the distance, smiling proudly as she gives him one last token of her voice: 

_Help them, Ben. You’re their only hope._

A fire lights in Ben’s heart and he ignites his lightsaber, stepping forward to press into Palpatine’s territory. The pale yellow eyes of the Sith lord focus on the freshly turned lightsider, pupils narrowing as he raises a hand, poised to strike with another launch of lightning.

Ben channels the force, channels his mother, and absorbs the force of the lightning in his palm, wincing as his flesh burns. He grimaces but manages to step forward, his mother’s words echoing, pulsing behind his eyelids: _You’re their only hope._

 _“_ You are right about one thing, Emperor,” Ben grits through his teeth, the lightning turning to an orb in his hands. “Pain _is_ a weapon. You should be more careful who you wield it against.”

The lightning tickles his fingertips and Ben twirls his hand just so that the ball of energy he’s been accumulating snaps back towards it’s original owner. Palpatine screeches, releasing Rey from his hold. She tumbles to the floor, limbs a mess and skin a sickly grey.

Ben mumbles her name as the Emperor attempts to gather himself, his robes in his hands as he struggles to stand. Rey is limp, and Ben can hardly sense her side of the Bond. It is instead a dull throb at the back of his neck, trying to crawl up to the crown of his head to no avail. He blows a breath through his nose, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing what energy he can through the scarce amount of the Bond that he _can feel_.

Just as the Emperor turns his lightning to Ben again, Rey’s eyes peel open and she groans. She rolls onto her side and once her gaze connects with the dueling force-wielders, irises widening, she reaches out and attempts to hold Palpatine back with the small amount of Force she can muster.

“Your coming together will be your undoing,” Palpatine’s voice booms within the cavern, walls shaking and rocks tumbling. He smirks from under his hood, “It was your Bond that has allowed me to be rejuvenated. How does this make you feel?”

“I’m sick of your rambling,” Rey mutters, standing to her feet shakily. She holds out her hand and beckons Leia’s saber to her grip, turning to glance at Ben one more time, “Thank you.”

A gentle smirk makes its way over his features, lips quirking upward. Ben nods at her, eyes alight with the mischief to mirror that of his father, “Anytime, sweetheart. I’m only sorry it took so long.”

She wants to say something, but two bolts of lightning catapult in their direction, forced forward by the crippled fingers of the Emperor. He cackles, but is cut by Ben’s chokehold, a bare hand held in midair to close Palpatine’s windpipes.

The gain doesn’t last for long, Palpatine’s power pushing back against Ben’s, “I’ve lived in the darkside, young Skywalker. You cannot beat me!”

Ben is thrown backward, tumbling against the rocks, dangerously close to the edge of the pit lingering behind them like a shadow. Rey screams at the sight of him falling, his name tumbling from her lips as a prayer. She turns, tears in her eyes, and bares her lightsaber to the Emperor.

“Fight me!” she cries, beckoning him with a taunt, trying to draw his attention away from Ben as he struggles in the background.

The jab does it’s job, bringing Palpatine’s attention back to the girl wielding the saber of the General of the Resistance. She growls, her teeth pearly even in the darkness of the cavern.

“The darkside is strong within your heart, girl,” Palpatine sneers, raising his arms to ready another bout of lightning. He huffs out a laugh that sounds more like a wheeze, “Why do you not let it engulf you completely? Allow it’s power to course through your veins, to guide you as it sees fit?”

Rey rolls the lightsaber hilt between her fingers, the blue light twirling as she readies her saber, “There is no more dark and light, you blind old man! There is a balance. Ben and I have found the balance.”

“We shall see.” 

Effortlessly, Palpatine strikes her again with his lightning, but Rey absorbs it with the saber. She digs her heels into the ground, willing herself to channel the Force through her muscles, allowing it to support her to stand upright.

“Yes,” a gravelly voice speaks from beside her. “We will.”

“Ben!” she gasps, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes.

The remains of the Bond throb in her spine, threading out through her nerves and veins, beating like lifeblood. The Force thrives, singing in her skin as she takes steps forward to gain ground against the Emperor. Rey feels The Balance flowing through her like a river, meanwhile strengthening her resolve.

“Skywalker,” Palpatine spits in disgust, his fingers sparking with lightning just as Ben ignites his grandfather’s saber. The blue-white light of the Sith lord’s Force attack singes Ben’s lightsaber, embers catching in his hair as the electricity flares. “Your bloodline is but a stain in the timeline. Your grandfather came from nothing, and to nothing he returned. After all, what are you but the remnant in a long line of a dying breed?”

“You’re wrong,” Ben grits, narrowing his eyes. His lower lip twitches as he grinds his feet into the rock beneath him, “I am my mother, my father, my grandfather, and my uncle. I am every bit of my bloodline. I cannot deny my family. I cannot deny the Light.”

Rey finds it easier to stand taller as he speaks, his resolve pushing their Bond forward, strengthening it and the power that they share with his confidence, with his realization. 

Still, her heart grows weary under the strain.

“You’re _nothing,_ boy! I am The Senate! I am The Sith!” Palpatine spits. His rotting mouth spews nothing but hatred, flaring against Ben’s side of the bond, his darkside counterpart wailing to be set free to unleash an eternal hell on the man who put him through a lifetime of pain. “You are _nothing_ without me, young Skywalker. _Nothing_.”

The old man cackles, “I am all of the Sith, layered into one final, eternal being. The two of you are merely pawns in my game, used to your fullest ability and then tossed to the wayside when I am finished with you.”

“You’re wrong.”

The voices of the Force wrap around the both of them, sealing them in some sort of vortex of power. It settles like stardust in their bones and they talk in unison, the entirety of those who have come before them echoing like a song as they speak.

“We are The Balance.”

The two force-wielders scream with a final attempt to return the Emperor’s attack. Their lightsabers glow brighter than ever, returning the lightning instead of merely absorbing it.

The Emperor’s cackle morphs into a bloodcurdling cry as his skin begins to flake from the bone. Lightning burns his clothes, and the flames lick what remains of his marrow. He tries to bellow out one final insult, but his teeth fall from his jaw into the dirt and he’s left speechless.

And then the two that have created The Balance crumble to their knees.

-

_Ben._

The boy grumbles, and for a moment he hears his father in his head.

_Ben, wake up. It’s time._

The gentle caress of his mother’s knuckles against his cheek is what wakes him.

_Mom?_

He can feel her smile rather than see it. The Force hugs him tightly like a blanket and despite his broken ankle and bruised ribs, he manages to sit up.

“Rey,” he blurts, twisting his torso and forgoing the pain to try and find her body. Ben manages to crawl, half on his knees, half stumbling, until he can cradle her within his grasp.

Ben can’t help it when he looks around, trying desperately to see those voices materialize before him. The severe lack of blue outlined figures makes his heart drop into his stomach.

He remembers when Rey closed his wounds for him before, in the rain. The way her lip trembled and her fingers shook. He wishes he could go back to that moment and fix everything, fix all of it. Maybe he wouldn’t have had to run into the Emperor’s throne room with absolutely no plan and a blaster if he had fixed it all with her then. 

“C’mon,” he murmurs, trying to channel every bit of her Light, of her goodness, as he wavers his palm over her abdomen. He surges her with Light. He presses every amount of sunshine left in his body into her, willing it to weave her bones back together and tie her spirit like a knot.

He thinks of her smile and of her laugh. He thinks of the way she looked when she first saw rain. He thinks of how intensely she’s looked at him, like she wanted to love him but knew he wasn’t ready yet.

He even thinks of the anger in her eyes from the forest, when he offered to be her teacher. He think of the pure rage with which she yields her saber when they’ve fought. He thinks of how she confronted the mighty Luke Skywalker when she found that he might have been responsible for helping to create Kylo Ren.

And then Ben thinks of the Balance.

Suddenly her heart is beating again.

“B-Ben?” she asks, as if too scared to be this close. She is a skittish rabbit, and he is a hungry wolf.

They have been here before. And yet it is new territory all the same.

_I did want to take your hand._

The words run through his mind like a terrible holocron, repeating and repeating ever since they left her lips. 

However, he does feel somewhat satisfied to feel her grip around his knuckles even though it hurts where his skin is split.

The second her lips make contact with his own, they are both thrown into a dizziness that neither of them have confronted before. Rey’s hands are on his face and his arms are locked tightly around her body as if he needs to hold her together.

She is brash in the kiss just as she is brash with everything else. Their lips are chapped and grimy but neither of them care. He brushes a thumb against her skull, practically playing with her middle hair-bun, and she smiles into the kiss.

“Ben,” she repeats as if solidifying it to be the truth.

They fall away from one another, still clutching, but some distance now.

There is quiet between them and Rey feels their Bond mending itself, stitching back together. It will take time.

But they have that now.

“We have to go,” Ben speaks quickly.

Rey realizes that the very building that might have been their prison is now going to be their doom. She looks to him, eyes wide, “I have a ship.”

He nods and then run together, one hand with a saber and the other preoccupied with each other. 

-

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“They’ll get used to you.”

“No, they won’t. I killed their friends.”

Rey sighs, “You cannot hide in here forever. There’s no food, no ‘fresher. You’ll die.”

“Dying seems like a much better fate.”

“So dramatic,” Rey pats him on the chest but somehow is stuck there like a magnet. Her palms rest against his pectorals and she looks him in the eyes. “We will find a place for you here.”

“And if we don’t?” he asks, bringing one of her palms to his mouth to press a kiss to the pulse point of her wrist. “Will you cast me out?”

Rey pushes herself up on her toes and kisses him again, this time more to prove a point than to enjoy it, “I will follow you. But we will try to mend this first. You were manipulated, since before your mother had given birth. That has to count for something.”

“I don’t know that they’ll see it that way, sweetheart.” Ben’s voice is kinder now, kinder than it was on Ahch-To, under the shelter of the hut when their hands touched and they saw one another’s future and past just alike. His head tilts when he addresses her, his throat bobbing while he waits for her answer.

She brushes her palm against his cheek and cradles his jaw, “You have amends to make, Ben. That much is clear. However, I don’t think your path will lead you away from this, away from what your family stood for.”

Ben resigns himself from the argument, something that is quite new for the both of them, and wraps her in his arms, “I do hope you’re right.”

“Your mother would be proud,” she murmurs against his shirt, toying with the bit of stray fabric at the back. Rey slips her palms underneath the hem and splays her fingers against his shoulder blades, “Your father, too. Han Solo believed in you. I don’t think that belief was misplaced.”

She can feel his throat bobbing against the crown of her head and it makes her smile - she’s been the only one to see him nervous in a very long time. It’s a special thought that she tucks away for later.

“All you can do is move forward, Ben.” Rey leans back to look him in the eyes. “That’s all any of us can do.”

He nods but not without toying at his lower lip, peeling at the skin that is chapped from the lightning that once overtook his body.

“My family would want me here,” Ben takes a shaky breath as he admits his thought out loud for the first time in decades. “It’s time I start listening.”

Rey beams at him, her eyes shining in the early sunlight. He wonders if she was always this recollective of a sunbeam - if she’s always been a pure beacon of light and hope.

It’s no wonder his parents adored her.

**Author's Note:**

> i really hope you guys enjoy this! it was really fun to write! now obviously if i was doing a whole TROS fix-it fic, it would definitely change even this stuff, but i figured it could be fun :) and maybe i can add on to different parts of this if you'd like to see more! 
> 
> drop me a comment if you have any requests or suggestions! thank you for reading!! x


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